The past few weeks have been a very festive time for
Mysore. People from all over the
country come to see Mysore’s elaborate processions and lights in celebration of
Dasara, one of the biggest holidays in India. The city swelled with people and
traffic, all of which culminated in a grand procession of floats, performers,
and elephants that have been training for weeks. Unfortunately, this procession is so famous, it was virtually impossible to get
anywhere near it. But that didn’t
stop us from trying! It was worth
it just to see how creative people can be in looking for a good viewing spot.
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| Yeah, that looks safe |
After about an hour
of trying in vain to find a spot where we could see something other than
people’s backs, we gave up and went to an air-conditioned coffee shop, where we
could watch the parade on TV.
Luckily, fate delivered another (perhaps even more amazing) procession
into our laps. I was taking a dawn
motorcycle ride with a friend to the top of Chamundi Hill to see the sun
rise when we noticed what seemed to be an unusually high volume of people
gathering. So, we decided to stick
around and see what happened.
Being literally the only westerners there, we were the object of much
attention.
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| Part of our fan club |
Fortunately, a family
sitting nearby flanked us and warded off the onslaught of grinning teenage
boys.
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| Our adopted "Auntie" |
While we were
waiting for the unknown festivities to start, we noticed people walking through
the crowds with baskets full of bananas that were adorned with sprigs of sage. Everyone around us was buying bananas... for what reason? We had no
idea. Suddenly, we heard an
explosion, and saw smoke rising nearby.
Our ‘adopted family’ laughed at our surprise. As it got closer, we
saw the source. Roughly every dozen feet, a team of men would pack a small cart full of some kind of explosive, and
then a man with a long, smoking stick would light it on fire.
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| Safety: not a priority |
This caused an
explosion with flames reaching tens of feet into the air and bits of (hopefully
harmless) “shrapnel” spraying the crowd.
I’ve never been that close to such a powerful explosion... you could feel it through your entire body.
We noticed everyone
was preparing their bananas, the main event was arriving! Several hundred people were using thick ropes to pull a cart with enormous wooden wheels, on top of which stood several live people and a deity. People cheered and shouted "Mysore!" as it lumbered down the street.
Our new friends passed us bananas and excitedly instructed us to wait until the altar got closer and then throw them!
The goal was to get our bananas stuck in the top, for good luck. I will never forget the sight of hundreds of bananas flying through the
air and pelting the elegantly decorated shrine.
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| It was bananas (ha!) |
Exiting the festival was daunting, as thousands of people
bottlenecked through alleys and around parked cars (not to mention our shoes
and pants were coated with mushed bananas). Some small children nearly got trampled when one fell in front of the dense and unforgiving crowd. At one point I’m fairly certain I could have lifted my feet
and continued to move purely through the pushing throng of people all around me.
Like most other experiences in India, it was strange, colorful,
devotional, exciting, and full of men.
